Color out of a box

One dilemma you face when you move is finding a new hair stylist, which is even more of a problem when you move to a new country where you don’t speak the language very well. If it was only a haircut I needed, then I would have put it off because I wear my hair long and straight, but the inch-wide stripe of gray along my part was bothering me.My first gray hairs sprouted in my early twenties and not even ten years later I was a regular in the salon chair. Now without the hair dye, I’d be almost completely gray. While I have toyed with the idea of “rockin’ a head of natural gray” like Jamie Lee Curtis, my stylist convinced me that I’m too youthful looking to go that route just yet. I may be “cursed” with the gray-hair gene, but I was blessed with the “no-wrinkles” gene. I’d definitely choose gray hair over wrinkles.

Since I’m 6000 miles away and not wealthy enough to fly my stylist out for a cut ‘n color (wouldn’t she love that and wouldn’t I love being wealthy enough to do that?), I decided to color it myself. Yes, there are salons here, and I probably could find someone who speaks English, but I just don’t feel confident yet to go ask. I’m shy, ok? I’ve done my own color a few times when my schedule didn't mesh with my stylist’s and it couldn’t wait, but the difference this time is that I didn’t have the exact same dye she uses. I used L’Oreal Excellence to Go 10 Minute Cream, which I was able to get on base (we have access to the nearby army base for shopping, which is a nice perk). And yes, there is a salon on base but I still chose coloring my hair myself over taking trains and buses to get there.

So the results? I miss my hair stylist. I do – she is a good friend now. But I also miss just sitting back and having her make my hair pretty again while we chat. The gray is mostly covered but so are most of my highlights. I tried to only cover the roots but I didn’t want a stripe of a different hair color either so I “mooshed” it in a bit like my stylist does every so often to merge in the older, dyed hair and avoid a stripy “tree ring” effect. All in all, it’s not bad…a little darker than I wanted (left it on too long I think, fearing that it wouldn’t cover the gray), but not bad. When I was in the store, a young, blonde woman was also looking at the hair color on the shelf, but when her mother came by and briskly warned her repeatedly that “it’ll turn your hair orange”, she gave up. My hair did not turn orange. Maybe it’s because I’m not blonde but maybe it’s also because I had some guidance from my stylist before I left about which color to choose.

In theory you should be able to achieve the same results from a box of dye bought from the drugstore as you do from a salon, just what L’Oreal and Garnier and Clairol want you to believe too. After all, it’s pretty much the same stuff they use in the salon. However, you don’t have the ability to see your own head from above and behind to make sure you get the dye everywhere it needs to go. Also, the reason I pay my stylist is for her to choose the right color and apply it correctly so that I don’t look like I just dyed my hair.

I will probably dye my hair myself again – I have one more box of the L’Oreal dye, but I will also work on my confidence to go to the salon here. Pretty soon I’ll be wanting a haircut too and I won’t do that myself. Well, maybe my bangs.

Week 2 of foot recovery

So it's been 10 days since the surgery and my foot is slowly healing. I went to work this week, with the help of my wonderful husband who is driving me around. It's nice to have a driver...and a cook. You don't realize how much you need to get around on your feet until you can't. Thank goodness I have my knitting because it's been keeping me sane while I camp out on the couch in the evenings. At work I sit with my leg up on the desk. Not the most ergonomic of positions!

I thought I'd share some of my experiences with this recovery in case anyone else does a search on Morton's neuroma and finds my blog. I did lots of searching on line before my surgery and found plenty of people experiencing terrible recovery but I suspect that's the case because people with problems will tend to voice them and not the other way around. My podiatrist has done lots and lots of these surgeries and after talking to him I felt confident to proceed...despite what I'd read on the internet. Yesterday I discovered a coworker had this surgery done on both feet about 20 years ago and she recovered 100%, has no residual pain or numbness and can play tennis with no problems. That made my day!

So a little back story to some questions people might have. How did I get this? How did I know I had it? What did it feel like?

How did I get this? I don't know exactly but it may partly be due to my shoes and perhaps just the way my foot is. Morton's neuroma is a nerve growth that typically occurs between the 3rd and 4th toes and can be caused by wearing narrow shoes, having flat feet or over pronation of the feet. I was never a big shoe person. I didn't cram my feet into uncomfortable or too high shoes for fashion's sake, but I also didn't buy very good shoes. It wasn't until a few years ago that I started to spend more money on good, comfortable shoes. I think I first noticed this pain when I was ice skating, about 6 or 7 years ago. After about an hour on the ice the ball of my foot became sore and I thought it was just from being in hard skates. I also remember having that same pain while walking (and walking and walking) in Rome. I was wearing some fairly well-made shoes (Reiker) but the insoles seemed a little hard in the toe area and I attributed the pain to that...and to all the walking. A few years ago I had more pain in my feet walking around New York City and at this point I decided that maybe my shoes were too narrow. I figured age and the extra weight I'm carrying had caused my feet to spread a bit and the regular medium size was just a bit too tight. Since then I've been buying shoes in wide widths or with roomy toe boxes. But I still had problems. Last spring I was wearing my Reiker shoes, which I don't wear all that often, and the pain in the ball of my foot came back. I bought some insoles and that helped but the pain seemed to stick around even in other shoes.

What did it feel like? Originally it just felt sore on the ball of my foot. Sometimes I could feel a sort of twang that was definitely a nerve - a lot like when you hit your funny bone. Interestingly I didn't really have numb toes; however, the little toe on my other foot does get numb and I remember it getting numb even way back in high school when I wore a particular pair of boots. Turn out I do have a smaller neuroma in that foot.

How did I know I had Morton's neuroma? The internet. I originally thought maybe the cushion in the balls of my feet was wearing out, but when I searched on line I found that my symptoms matched up with Morton's neuroma. I made an appointment with a podiatrist and he confirmed the diagnosis (without letting him know I consulted Dr. Google - well actually Dr. Bing). He got me custom orthotics to get my feet stabilized and we hoped that the neuroma would shrink. But it didn't.

So I had surgery. I could have had injections of cortisone but that would have been temporary fix and also meant needles. In my foot. Ow. My podiatrist has a lot of experience with this condition and he says he can tell the cases that will ultimately need surgery and mine was one of them. I put off the surgery as long as I could. Normally people with Morton's neuroma feel better when barefoot but I didn't. I think it's because I have a lot of flex in my foot. When I pick up my foot after being flat on the floor, it flexes and crunches the neuroma. Well, it used to...the neuroma is not there anymore so I shouldn't have a problem anymore.

I'll continue the story of the surgery and the recovery another day.

Measuring tape fix

I stopped by Daiso at lunch today because who can resist a little bit of cute overload at the Japanese dollar (actually $1.50) store? Check out this little bear measuring tape:

And it is "convenient for the sewing and the body check." Perfect! Now I can do a body check. (click the picture to see it larger, if you can't read the expression at the top).

Since the "Bear's faced measuring tape" is metric I thought I'd keep it in my knitting bag for those times when I'm working on non-US patterns. But in the process of opening the package, which was maybe a little too easy to open compared to the indestructible rhino-proof plastic shells most things are packaged in these days. The measuring tape slipped out of my hands onto the wood floor and...

AAAAAAARGH!!!!!!

Actually the picture doesn't make it look as crazy as it was. Everything scooted under the coffee table, and I tried to find all the parts without knowing what parts I needed to find. The coil had completely "sprung" but I rolled it up and held it together with a clothespin until I could figure out what to do. Miraculously I found everything, including a little tiny spring. Now most people would throw the whole mess in the trash. After all, it was from the dollar $1.50 store. But not me. I'm an engineer. And I'm cheap and don't like to put stuff in landfills, so I fix things. But I didn't have a clue what went where or even how retractable measuring tapes worked. I searched online but found the same answer: throw it away and buy a new one.

So I had a glass of wine to ease my disappointment over the demise of my bear measuring tape and decide if I wanted to accept the challenge of fixing it. Of course I did. I love a mechanical challenge.

I'm going to share my discoveries in case you want to fix your retractable measuring tape instead of chucking it in the trash, because I suspect these little plastic ones have pretty much the same internal design. I figured it couldn't be too complex given that it was so inexpensive. I also figured that every notch and hole and piece of plastic served a purpose. I just had to figure out what went where. The only thing that was partially intact after the crash was the tape; it was still mostly wound around the outside of the black wheel, so that meant the coil had to go on the inside.

I was almost correct in the above picture. It turned out I had the assembly upside down but in this view, you can see how one end of the coil fits into the notched, plastic center post. There are four notches cut into the sides of the plastic wheel: the looped end of the tape slips onto the two notches that are closest together and the other end of the coil is secured in the other two notches. When the wheel is wound, the coil, being secured now at both ends, tightens and stores energy. I found that the way to get the tape onto the wheel was to wind the wheel so that the coil tightens and at the same time, guide the tape around the outside. But that's not all. When the coil is as tight as it will go, carefully undo the tape from the wheel but leave the looped end attached. Then you reverse the direction of the wheel (slowly!) and the tape will wind back onto the wheel in the opposite direction as the coil unwinds. When all of the tape is reeled in, the coil is no longer fully wound and ready to fly off. But when you pull the tape the coil winds up; release the tape and the coil reels in the tape again.

The next part was figuring out how the middle button (bear's nose) fit. The tiny spring in the center post was a key piece and made me realize I had everything upside down. It's correct in the above picture. See those plastic tabs in the inside of the wheel? Those are the "brakes" that are disengaged when the button is pressed. This is also why these type of measuring tapes go click-click-click when you don't depress the button.

So there you go. My little bear measuring tape is happy again and I solved a puzzle, saved a bit of plastic and metal from the dump, and best of all I have a cute tape measure for my knitting bag.

And if you're wondering, the bear measuring tapes also come in blue and yellow. I didn't see any other animals, just bears.

Hungry babies

There is a pair of Peregrine falcons that nested atop the San Jose city hall. I've been watching them raise their 4 babies (eyasses), which were born on April 20-22, on the web cam installed by UC Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group. It's amazing to see such a huntress turn into a tender mama. The eyasses are growing quickly and yet she still tries to gather all four of them under her wings. I caught the afternoon feeding and snapped a screen print.

A New Year...again

A few other bloggers are revisiting their resolutions from last year to see how they did, so I thought I'd take a look at mine.

1. Blog more often - In 2007 I posted 64 entries and in 2008 I posted 66, not counting this one. That's not blogging more often. At least it didn't go down! I blame part of it on Facebook. I joined it this year and sometimes updating my status on Facebook trumps updating the blog.

2. Lose weight. Meh. I stayed about the same but I didn't work hard at losing weight. Without a 9-5 job, I really should get to the gym more often. I did go a handful of times in November and December. Maybe I'll make it more of a habit in 2009.

3. Embrace my hobbies. Without that 9-5 job, I certainly am embracing my hobbies. Although I sewed about the same number of garments as last year (8 this year, 9 last year), most were completed in the last few months due to that lack of 9-5 job thing. I did knit a lot more but I still have the problem of not actually finishing the items. Gotta work on that.

4. Think before I buy. I've done relatively well with this one. There's still too much stuff in the house but I think I've done well to keep shopping to a minimum and only buy what's needed. My fabric buying was down this year except for two bouts of travel-fabric buying, one in D.C. with fellow patternreview sewing friends and one in NY because what sewer can resist an opportunity to shop in the NY Garment District? My yarn buying was not so restrained but I knit a lot more things this year so that's good, right?

5. Find the good in my work. Well, the J-0-B ended and I have my sanity back. It was tough in the last few months but I dug my heels in, went to the office every day (instead of hiding out at home and telecommuting), and finished up the work I needed to finish. On my last day my co-workers took me to lunch and the manager even gave me a memento of the project. The lay-off from the contracting company was partly voluntary and I know they would have wanted to keep me if there had been suitable work. So it's all good.

6. Nurture relationships. I think I did ok with this one but I know I could do better. There's always room for improvement here.

I think I'll just repeat these resolutions for 2009, except #5 becomes slightly modified into "Find good work" And I really want to keep the word "good" in there because I don't want to find myself in a difficult situation again.

Tiny woodworking

I am in awe of the miniature woodworking by William R. Robertson.

Someday I would like to make miniature textiles by weaving and knitting and maybe even bobbin lace. I remember once using straight pins as tiny knitting needles to make a bit of knitting for my Barbie. I guess Probably the only reason I've not gone down the (miniature) rabbit hole is because just making full size versions take up more than enough of my time. There's a woman from either North or South Dakota (some place with long, cold winters) who comes to Stitches and shows off her miniature sweaters that are done to scale with the correct gauge as full size sweaters.

Not enough hours in the day

How is it that even though I'm not spending 8+ hours a day at a job, I still don't have enough time to do all the things I want to do? Do you think my expectations are a bit high? I think so. But I'm certainly not bored!

This month we traveled to Atlanta to attend my niece's wedding. The wedding was very nice, the bride was beautiful, the groom handsome, and it was wonderful to see some of my relatives again. An added bonus was that my sister-in-law lives in Atlanta, so we stayed with them for a couple days and took the opportunity to visit the Georgia Aquarium. Here's a little bit of video I shot (not very good because it was shot from my little camera). It shows the whale sharks, which is their "main draw." My niece works at the aquarium and assisted with the transport of one of the whale sharks from Taiwan.

I liked the exhibit shown in the video and I also like a few other exhibits, but overall I have to say that I prefer the Monterey Aquarium. I suppose I'm biased since I live nearer to Monterey, but the Georgia Aquarium resembled a mall to me, and I was disappointed that except for the large tank with the whale sharks, the views to the tanks were rather small and there really weren't that many. I did like the wide range of habitats they displayed (river, cold water, etc.) but each one is heavily sponsored and it showed. I also think I like the Monterey Aquarium because it is near the water and relates more to nature than the Georgia Aquarium, which is in downtown Atlanta. I'd say if you're in Atlanta, go visit it but be prepared for the high ticket cost ($26 - ok, it's only $1 more than Monterey) and a bit of commercialism.

Here's another video to show you what we did the following weekend. I apologize for the poor videography. It's just a little video camera I use and it's not meant for high quality videos. I also tried to shorten the video but gave up - you of course don't have to watch the whole thing...or any of it for that matter!

This was the last race of the American Le Mans Series and it was held at Laguna Seca raceway, which is only an hour or so from here. It was the first time we'd been to this track but I don't think it will be the last. We had a good time and it was very easy to see the race. After going to the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans in France four years ago, we have both become fans of this type of racing. They race four types of race cars at the same time: two types of LMP, or Le Mans Prototype cars (the low, "Indy" or Formula 1 looking cars built just to race) and two types of GT, or "grand touring" (modified Corvette, Porsche, Ferrari, etc). The different speeds of the two types makes it challenging in the corners and for passing. This race at Laguna was four hours long and started in daylight and ended in the evening, with darkness, fog and much cooler temperatures. Before the race they let the spectators out on the track to view the cars (and drivers) close up. We were able to sit in the grandstand for the start and finish of the race and then we could wander all over to view the race at various curves and from different vantage points. The video shows the view from our chairs on a little hillside. We did wear ear protection!

Now that I'm home, I finally finished the knit top I was working on and thus have completed the outfit from Diana Couture magazine. First, a big thanks to everyone who commented on my dress. I meant to mention that in my last post. I'm not so great at leaving comments on other people's blogs even when I think in my head what I'd like to tell them, so I do appreciate your comments. So here's a picture of the outfit, although I'm not sure I'll wear it all together - the ties on the top sort of interfere with the bolero ties.

Here are the individual pieces:

I wrote reviews for them on patternreview: bolero, skirt, and top.

I do enjoy having the extra time to sew and already have a few patterns cut out or traced for my next projects. I want to add a few more, warmer things to my wardrobe because we're going to New York City - it's a work trip for my husband and I'm tagging along to play...look out Fashion District, HERE I COME!

Rediscovering the library

I hadn't been to the library in years but today I visited one of my local branches and discovered what I'd been missing. You can rent a movie...for FREE! You can get a book on tape to listen to during a workout or while gardening or doing some other task that you need to do (thank you Janet from knitting meetup for that suggestion). You can borrow a book you'd like to look at but shouldn't buy because it will be out of date in a few years. You can also borrow a book you've been thinking about buying but now you can see if it's really worth the limited book shelf space you have for knitting books.

This branch is a brand new building so it's spacious, well-lit, beautiful, and it even has a coffee shop.

Hooray for the library!